Galanthus in April 2019

[Leena]

This past week more snowdrops have come to flower when the snow has melted.
'Atkinsii'
'Mrs Macnamara', it looks like one has yellow markings, but they should all be the same plant, and I suspect the yellow is only either from cold or because there was so much snow over the plants.
'Falkland House' which has this year bigger flowers than before.
'Trymposter' is so small, but it has increased from last year.

[Leena]

I don't have many snowdrops which have green marks in the outers. I have 'Rosemary Burnham' but it has regressed, and is not flowering, I should move it to someplace else.
Green nivalis seem to do ok for me. 'Greenish' has multiplied well from one bulb two years ago.
'Hugh Mackenzie' also is ok, planted also  summer 2017, and it is good green for me, though it's flower shape is not very elegant.
Last spring I bought one snowdrop from Slovenia, the cheapest one available. When it came in the mail, it's flower was already over, but here it is now. The green markings are quite faint, but flower is big compared to the plant (though it hasn't flowered long yet). I hope all these will hybridize and give me seeds for more green nivalis.

[David Nicholson]

Glad to see your Spring is arriving Leena.

[Leena]

Thank you David! This is the best time of year, every day there are new plants coming up, old friends and new surprises.

[David Lowndes]

I enjoyed looking at these Leena - two months after we had them!  They do look healthy and thriving in your cold weather!

[Leena]

I enjoyed looking at these Leena - two months after we had them!  They do look healthy and thriving in your cold weather!

Thanks, I glad you liked looking at these. For me snowdrops are trial and error. Most of them like it even in our weather, but there are some I have lost, and some are not doing well at all. For instance, 'Wendy's Gold' is difficult for me, but other nivalis or hybrid yellows are better here. I have heard similar experiences also from others in Finland.

Here are some more snowdrops. I like to grow them outside (because I don't have a place to keep the pots during winter, and in pots above ground they may freeze to death in cold winters) in my woodland beds, and try to find also other nice companion plants.
In the first picture is 'S.Arnott', which does very well for me. The crocus in the picture is C.sieberi 'Firefly' which does better than 'Tricolor', I don't know why.
In the second picture 'Diggory' with C.tommasinianus .
'Diggory' has increased well from one bulb, that I have already divided it and planted also to another bed, where only now snow is melting.

[Leena]

Some more.
'Washfield Colesbourne'
'Colossus'
'Big Boy'
In the last picture a peculiar flower of 'Cordelia'. Usually the markings have been green, but this year in the sunny side of the flower the marking is yellow. In the shade side of the same flower the marking is green.

[David Lowndes]

Lovely, natural planting.  Strange about the crocuses.

[Leena]

Thank you.
In many of my pictures, there are spruce branches in the background. I use them to protect mainly Helleborus buds in cold nights, and they also prevent wild rabbits from eating the buds during nights. Snowdrops are good plants, no animal eats them! Usually also Hellebores are not eaten, but in early spring when there is nothing growing yet in the wild, the animals come to the garden to look for food, and then some buds may get eaten.

[Gail]

Snowdrops are good plants, no animal eats them!

Do we have an emoticon for ironic laughter? I agree that birds and mammals don't usually eat them (although I've had pheasants pulling the flower heads off just for the fun of it) but swift moth larvae will happily chomp through a potful of the bulbs...

I always used to say I grew peonies because nothing eats them but last year...


I was getting excited about the fattening bud on a new Paeonia rockii but next time I checked it there was just a small piece of sepal left and a little lump of insect frass...

[Leena]

Of course Gail, I forgot about swift moth larvae , so far I haven't seen it in my garden, but it is known to live also here, mostly on Narcissus, because snowdrops are not very common - I don't think there are any other snowdrops at least in 15km radius from my garden in the countryside. In the cities there are also more snowdrops, and they are slowly becoming more known because there are snowdrops sold in garden centers as dry bulbs in the autumn. Not very common though I think, but when weather gets warmer and winters milder it may well become a pest also here.

For my peonies botrytis is the biggest problem and I have lost many peonies to it.

One more snowdrop. This is an unnamed G.plicatus, short and lovely, and I like it very much.

[Leena]

More snowdrops from last week-end.
Here all snowdrops flower about the same time, so here is 'Straffan' in the foreground and 'Mrs Macnamara' behind it.
Nameless G.plicatus from Augis Bulbs, very prolific for me.
'Gerard Parker' looks good this year, but many time it has suffered from cold.

[Leena]

'Glenchantress' does well, one bulb planted in 2016. I like this.
Also 'Copton Trym' is a snowdrop I like very much, and it does well for me.
Markings in 'Green of Hearts' look similar to CT, maybe slightly bigger in the outers and also it seems to be taller than CT. This is one bulb planted last summer, so I don't know yet how it will do in the long run.
'John Long' is my favourite, too.
'Lord Lieutenant' was planted in 2014, and it is looking nice with short leaves and  upright stature, but the markings in the inner petals have not been what is pictured in the books. Only this year in one flower the markings seem to merge together like they should, so I'm wondering if this is a cultivar where it takes time to develop the "right" markings...

[Maggi Young]

As usual, Leena, your  photographs are  every  bit as  lovely as your  flowers. How  pretty the  snowdrops are in your  garden!

[Leena]

Thanks Maggi, I'm very good at cropping the pictures so that all the mess is left outside.
I love snowdrops because they are the first ones to flower, and at this time of spring there is still time to admire them and they are not yet lost in all other plants (and weeds), they shine now in spite of freezing nights and even days sometimes. Though our snowdrop season is short but it is wonderful still.